VABeach

4. :d

We have an ongoing thread about disembarkation in Venice and I'm hoping someone here has the answer to this :

Is it Policy at the port in Venice that All Luggage must be picked up overnight outside your cabin and that taking your own luggage (self-disembarkation) is not allowed. Some are saying this is the port policy in Venice and others are saying it's the Cruise line's (NCL) policy ?

I can't seem to find anything thru the search option. If anyone has the answer to this , we would greatly appreciate the help.

 

cheers...the Ump...:D

 

I have sailed out of Venice twice in the past three years, once on NCL and once on Costa, both times we were allowed to carry out small Carry On Items that our Clothes and Toiletries were in. They took our Big Luggage the night before.

How can my wife and I get from Civitavecchia to Rome and back in 5 Hours? Any sugestions on what to see in Rome quickly?

 

If you are on a cruise, I'd highly recommend taking a ship excursion. Traffic in Rome can be tricky, and you don't have any time for things to go wrong. Sign up for an excursion and enjoy the ride. ~

The tap water on ships is purer than most bottled waters.

 

Thank you for being one of the few people in the world who realize this! ;)

I really want to go to Istanbul but we have been there before and it is amazing, that is a huge draw for MSC Divina but I would love to see Split if we did NCL Jade.

 

Split was ok. It definately isn't Dubrovnik.

Trying to compare Norweigan Jade and MSC Divina for a possible cruise June 22nd.

 

So far here are my thoughts, any input?

 

MSC Divina has only set time dining and buffet, gorgeous, new ship and very international passenger set. Any chance lots of British kids on board or they not out of school yet? Limited hours in ports and not sure why? Food gets mixed reviews and no free water so fator that into the cost.

 

 

NCL Jade- older ship, more geared toward North Americans, food doens't get great reviews, but compared to MSC not sure which is better, anytime dining and very casual clothing like jeans are allowed. longer times in port.

 

Can anyone compare the kids club facilities? Compare the food or the feel? For our family of 4 the base price is almost the same, so just trying to figure out more info to decide!

 

Jenn

 

I have sailed NCL Jade out of Venice, and MSC Splendida out of Barcelona... so I may or may not be of any help.

 

My opinion is: NCL is more casual and more American. MSC is more Italian and more Italian. :p

 

So, you have to understand what that means.... MSC will have more Europeans than NCL, and the food will be different.

 

I assume you already understand "American", so I'll explain what I mean by "Italian". Not as much Party Style Drinking, Not as Casually Dressed, Food is Authentic Italian - Not Olive Garden, People will speak other Languages.

 

By "Food is Authentic Italian" I mean, Breakfast will be something like: Smoked Salmon, Muselix with Warm Milk, and Poached Eggs.... that scares some people. I think that's why people rate the food low - they never knew that Olive Garden isn't real Italian Food. :rolleyes:

 

I enjoyed both!! :D

Hi there,

I just started looking into some msc cruises as the rates seem quite reasonable, which is great! Ive only cruised carnival, so if any of you have cruised both, what is the diffeerence in terms of food, cabins, kids clubs etc? Do they have water slides as well as pools.

my son is 7 he really loved the carnival camps.

thanks so much, any info would be appreciated!

 

trish

 

I have cruised on both. They are very far apart on the cruise scale in my opinion.

 

Carnival - The Fun Ship, American

MSC - Classy, Elegant, Italian

You have met us Cruise Critic folks, haven't you? :D :D

 

We'll complain about anything!

 

Now someone can complain about this post and continue the trend. ;)

 

I only complain about complainers. ;)

Before July 1, 2011

$3.50pp per day for Stateroom Attendant ($5.75 if in a GS or above)

$3.50pp per day for Waiter

$2.00pp per day for Assistant Waiter

$0.75pp per day for Head Waiter

$9.75pp per day ($12.00pp per day if booked in a GS or above)

 

After July 1, 2011

$5.00pp per day for Housekeeping Staff ($7.25 if in a GS or above)

$3.75pp per day for Waiter

$2.15pp per day for Assistant Waiter

$0.75pp per day for Head Waiter

$11.65pp per day ($13.90pp per day if booked in a GS or above)

 

The rate increase effective March 1, 2013 is $.35pp per day.

 

Thank you for posting, that's kind of my point. It seems a little strange to me that people spend thousands of dollars to go on vacation, and then complain about $5 or $10. :rolleyes:

The last gratuity increase was July 1, 2011.

 

By how much?

I have no problem with the increase in tipping. These are hardworking people and it's a good thing to reward them.

 

I couldn't agree more! How long has it been since they increased the suggested amount anyway? The Amount of Increase is not breaking my bank. If it was, I wouldn't be going. :rolleyes:

Your grandfather will be there enjoying all of it with you! I will pray that it goes smoothly for you. I am sure you will reap many blessings for doing this for her, because, you always have a choice!:)

 

I keep trying to tell everyone that. There is just too much to see to stay in your own little world! My Mom has travelled some. I am so glad I convinced her to do this cruise with us in October. She is actually having knee replacement surgery next week on one of her knees. She is expected to have it on the other knee down the road sometime. Maybe after she completely heals, she will be a new woman!

 

Yes!! My grandmother was suppose to go to Rome with us in November, but fell and broke her hip 6 weeks prior. This is the Post Surgery Cruise. They both can do it!!! :)

Wow! You are very special to take your 81 year old grandmother on her first real vacation, but to take her to Europe makes you extra special!:) I have tried to convince my mother to do our trip with us next year. Since we booked our own excursions, we were not crowded, and we really didn't have to walk all that much...for our cruise excursions, anyway. (She has bad knees.) You will have to let me know how it goes. Maybe if I told her your 81 year old grandmother went and had a great time, she would feel like she could make the trip herself as well!

 

I hope you have a great trip!!

 

Thank you!! I know there will be challenges, but my grandfather always wanted to go to Italy and he didn't make it. This is something I have to do, I don't really have a choice. Your review helped prepare me.

 

I hope you get your mother to go! Life is way to short to not live it! :)

Thank you so much for posting! I am doing this same trip in May. I'm taking my 81 yo grandmother for her very first real vacation EVER. This did help answer a lot of my questions. I'm glad that we are taking a ship tour in Turkey. Having never done anyting like this before, she definately has some "concerns" (justified or not) and I don't want anything to happen that is going to freak her out. :rolleyes:

I really appreciate Robyn. I was so hesitant to book a cruise out of PR due to all of the reviews, but her posts convinced me to give it a try. So glad I did! I've sailed out of PR 3 times, and it's my FAVORITE itenerary. Thanks Robyn!! :D

I've stayed in an A1, you get lots of extra floor space. :D

Thanks Karma!! I'll be jealous all week while you're gone. :D

Getting ready to take my fourth cruise on Victory. Absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this cruise. My favorite. ~

 

There doesn't seem to be anyone else going on Dec 26 - New Year's???? Too bad, it's going to be a great trip! :D

<sigh> Seems like yesturday that we just got off this boat. Can't wait until Christmas to go do it again.... <sigh>

 

7 days is just not enough time! :p

I stayed in an A1 on Coasta Fortuna once (sister ship to the Carnival fleet).

 

It was on the Riveria Deck, inside, right behind the aft elevators.

 

It was a true upper/lower, and I loved it!!! OMG, the floor space!!! Wow. :D

I love this thread - I was just wondering how the 1st night works? As far as dinner - if we are doing the muster around 9 like I have read, how does that work with denner times? Also I know I asked this before, but I cant find it now - what time do we have to be back on the ship after we get back off the ship in San Juan? DId that make sense??? LOL

Thanks All!!!

 

Dinner is open seating in the dinning room for the first night.

We are leaving in 29 days on the Victory - :D I am looking at excursions at each port - or at least "don't miss" spots for each. Does anyone have any recommendations??

 

We just got off the Victory and had a great time!

 

We:

Raced Sailboats in St Thomas,

Took the Island Bus/Waterfall tour in Dominica,

Played on Rockley Beach in Barbados (thanks Alpmac!),

Mountian Biked up the Mountains and Hiked Down to the waterfalls in St Lucia,

Snorkeled with the Sting Rays in Antigua,

and SCUBA in St Kitts

 

They where all so amazing, it would be really hard to say which one was my favorite.

 

I have a link to our pictures in my signature. It was pretty amazing! :)

 

I would recommend having things planned in advance on this itenerary. Time moves really fast and it will catch you off guard if you are not prepared.

That could be true what alpmac said, we had an aft cabin so we were assigned the aft dining room?? Makes sense I guess.

 

Could be true. Our cabin was an aft cabin and we had the aft dining room, but what about when people traveling together have cabins both forward and aft and still want to sit together at dinner??? :p

 

Yea, I have to be the difficult one. :D

[quote name='dz63']:confused: I have two questions about the dining room which I hope someone will be able to answer.

1. We would like to eat breakfast at least once in the dining room--as we never did get around to doing that on our last cruise. For those of you that had breakfast in the dining room approx. how long does it take from the time you are served to the time you are finished eating? I would like to figure out how much time to allow and still make it ashore to catch our excursions on time. On our last cruise we only ate breakfast on the Lido Deck--that was a quick way to get breakfast--especially if you are in a hurry to get to your excursion on time!

2. We are assigned the late seating (8:15) for dinner. Does anyone know what dining room we would be assigned too?

Thank you for your help![/quote]

As much as I [B]LOVE[/B] eating breakfast, lunch and dinner in the dining room, we only ate there once, and that was for dinner. I just found that we were way too busy with this itenerary to do all of the traditional ship stuff.

We had 8:00 am shore excursions booked everyday and were way too tired when we got back to the ship to be on a schedule for the rest of the evening.

We didn't eat dinner in the dining room, we didn't go to shows, we didn't stay up late dancing, we didn't eat breakfast in the dining room, we didn't even look at the Carnival Capers (I even forgot to see what time we had to be back on board a couple of times!).... we just enjoyed the heck out of every island! :D

I always read these type of things in the reviews and thought to myself, "well that won't be me....", but it was.

After 14 weeks at sea, I thought I had this cruise thing all figured out. Don't be suprised if you don't do things exactly the way you originally planned on this one. ;)

[quote name='aplmac'][COLOR=black]Geeez...that looks [B]painful! :eek:[/B][/COLOR]

[COLOR=black]The stinging mechanisms in most invertebrate marine organisms [/COLOR]
[COLOR=black]utilise [B]a proteinic acid[/B] to do the actual stinging. [/COLOR]
[COLOR=black]That's why it stings and burns. Acid![/COLOR]

[COLOR=black]So what we need is an anti-acid. Stupid as it sounds, [U]meat tenderizer[/U] works very well. [/COLOR]
[COLOR=black]Why meat tenderizer ? It's an anti-protein, isn't it.. [/COLOR]
[COLOR=black]- it breaks down the cell structure of the meat, rendering it softer[/COLOR]

[COLOR=black]In the islands, we use green papaya as a local meat tenderizer [/COLOR]
[COLOR=black]but you're not likely to have Green Pawpaw on you, I know.[/COLOR]


[COLOR=black]A bit more 21st. Century would be to take [U]anti-histamine[/U] tablets a.s.a.p.[/COLOR]
[COLOR=black]a remedy we use for centipede bites,here on the island (that clever tip from my Doctor-dau.) [/COLOR]
[COLOR=black]since stings activate histamines in the body.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=black]Today's useless facts, but just in case you have these things along with you..[/COLOR] :cool:


[COLOR=white].[/COLOR][/quote]

Wow. That looks like it really hurts!! (and I have been stung by enough jellyfish to know).

Two things I never go on vacation without: Topical Benadril, Liquid Band Aid.

I guess I have been lucky, I have never even seen a jelly fish in the Caribbean. I thought they were all right here in Virginia Beach and the Outter Banks, NC. :cool: